4 a.m. or 10 a.m. ???? I just don't know

When I work the overnight shift, I usually do pretty well until about 4 a.m. then I hit the wall and until about 5:30 my body screams .... you should be sleeping!

So the first day of surgery started early for me with the alarm at 0600. We have 4 surgeries today and in order to get them all in we need to start at 8. So for me this means I need to get down to the ward and get the first patient ready. She needs a shower and an IV and time for the IV fluid to get in. I am greeted warmly as I come around the corner into the ward at 0630.

I make it to 1000 and the first patient is in the operating theater and the next two are ready and here comes the wall. I feel like it is 4 in the morning ... wait it is 4 in the morning or at least it is on the other side of the world where I usually lay my head. But here in Danja it is 1000 and hot and muggy and quiet and my body is saying sleep! So while I have a quick moment I lay down to close my eyes for a quick rest on the bench in the ward and the minute I do the patient returns from surgery... it's ok this is her 3rd attempt at having her fistula fixed and it is time to get back to work.

It is good for the next 3 ladies that this lady with previous surgeries went first, she isn't nervous about the process she just takes it all in stride and with a smile. She even takes it upon herself to help explain what will happen to the other ladies and demonstrate for them some of the things we ask them to do in preparation for surgery.

One of the other ladies who is next for surgery was anxiously watching on as the lady next to her had her IV started. The whole time she watched her neighbor, I was watching her face. Her face read fear. As a nurse I don't even think twice about these things I consider routine everyday procedures. But for especially these patients this may be their first time ever in a hospital or to see an IV needle or a blood pressure cuff and the inside of an operating room. How crazy scary this must be for them and how much trust it must take for them to let us... these people they don't know, that speak a different language, and are a different color come in and take control from them and then trust us to care for them. As the IV is finished on her neighbor she looks up and catches my eye, I smile and she giggles like she was caught cheating on her fourth grade math test. Fear will not rule for today she is taking this chance for hope and as I write this her surgery went well and so far she is dry!